Day three

Here is my long journal writing for my day yesterday...

Day Two, August 19, 2010


I wake about 5:30, not bad for going to bed at 8:00. I will try to get more into the Italian flow of staying up tonight. I lie in bed for awhile listening to the end of my Audiobook, "The Power of One". Great book. I will have to see the movie but I am sure it won't be as good. "First with the head and then with the heart" was PK's motto for boxing but ended being a inspiration for all his moves of life. I think about writing in my journal but my fingers are not feeling that nimble so I just decide to get up and start my day. I want to go for a jog. I know there are a lot of staired bridges around here but I figures that okay, just good training for the Columbia stair climb this next year. I actually find a nice way to run along the main water way. People are about even a few runners.

I get about 50 minutes of running with some wonderful sight seeing along the way. I spot a tabacchi shop that I will stop by on the way back because I want to buy a phone card, but too early for them still closed before 9 am when I get done jogging.

I prepare for the day. I shower and wash out my jogging clothes. I will try out the hotel breakfast. It is a little lame for what I have experienced in the past. I couple of rolls are at your table. I dry crossaint(France would be emberrased) with some sort of small amount of jam filling are served to you. You are asked if you want coffee or tea. I ask for a cappucino and I am asked if I want coffe with milk( I thought they were the same according to a Italian learning tape I am listening to on my Ipod). The coffee is boiled on some type of large saucepan on a stove and then given to me in a tin cup and then an accompanying side of warm milk in a small pitcher is brought to my little table. Interesting, not bad but I was looking forward to a real cappucino in Italia.
This reminds of the do-it-yourself put together Tiramisu I had in Venice years ago. Maybe is the way of this island city, I conclude. Also available, is some yogurt, one type of dry cereal(some sort of rice flakes it appears), dry biscuits, cheese, orange juice and Nestea out of a bottle. I go for the yogurt. I drink my coffee and my milk together. I need more milk because I am not really a coffee drinker. I have to take milk for the cereal to finish it off (better with the warm milk is my thought).

My next move is to figure out the Internet. I have paid 5 Euros for three hours of time here at the hotel. I tell the hotel clerk I have a question. He says, "How many questions?" Just one. Massimo( I like his name) acts a little surly but is generally helpful. I bring down my laptop and we figure it out. I enter the pass code wrong a few times and then I figure that out. Then I figure out that I can only sit in the lobby to get the silly passcode to work. Ugh, but at least I able to work on my blog. I do have a little difficulty with that too but I am finally able to post my info onto Facebook but I would like to figure a way to send to others not via the Internet. An hour of my internet is used up and now I must get going, it is almost 11 o'clock. I try to down load my pictures, which works fine off my camera but it can't find the ones on my phone. It is so strange, when I press camera roll on the phone, my Italian pictures are there but not when I press the icon for photos on the phone. I do use my phone and set up a time for a bar tour..oh there is walking tour before the bar tour, I will do both! I will meet Guessuppie (I like his name too) tommorrow at four at top of the Realto bridge at four.

I have decided to wander off and head down towards the Accademia. I wander and wander. I find my tabacchi shop in St Mark's square and get my phone card. I stop in many shops and meander the streets of Venice. It's getting hot out here and feet are getting a little tired. I consider the Accademia museum but I am not ready to go in. I find an opera house that holds tours, but I am not ready to do that either. More wandering is to be had as I listen to my Italian language learning audiobook. It is getting hot and I am little hungry. I walk to the church the Santa Maria del Salute. I sit on the steps of the church a little here and have fun watching life go by on the Grand Canal. They say there are tours of the church but I do not see an entrance. There is an entrance to a museum next to it so maybe that is how you get in. I decide to go into this museum even though I don't know anything about it.The museum is called Punta della Dogana. It is the point where ships used to unload their wares as they came into Venice during ancient time. The building has been restored and is quite lovely with its brick wallls, exposed beams and windows with views of the Grand canal and the canal Guedecca all around. This is a modern art museum. Very interesting stuff, no picture taking allowed, so I hope to get some postcards of the works at the end. You come in through a beaded curtain of red and white beads, which is art work used to respresent AIDS, the red and white corpuscles. There are hundred translucent short blocks sitting on the ground here used to represent un-used space like under a table. There is a horse jumping into a brick wall but you cannot see its head. Quite eye pleasing stuff walking into this big room. Other things I like or that intrigue me are a room with a sculpture of a bunch of figurative George Bush characters raping themselves and a pig surrounding by champagne bottles. Another, a dark room with brightly colored skylines of different colors with large accompanying lighted and colored glass domes near them....all to represent Superman's home town on Krypton that he had to shrink and keep under a glass dome to protect it ( I knew about the Krpton but not the detail of about his home planet. I guess am just a fan of the hunky guys that play Superman but I am not a follower his comic book bankground...how superficial of me). I am really getting hungry so I finish up my audioguide even though I could not find two of the installlations/displays. I turn in my audioguide so I can get my passport out of its hostage situation. I then head to the bookstore, but just a few postcards. I get the one postcard of Bush's criminal act (even though it won't be suitable for all to view) and one other that is representative of the space...too bad, the more colorful(truly pigment not risque) installations were not included.

I head back towards the Accademia. I stop in many glass shops along the way and there are many glass shops here! Glass shops and mask shops are the main attraction here with a few leather goods and clothing shops thrown in for good measure. There is definite feast for the eyes here, with the canals, the glass displays and the museums. Speaking of feasts, I am getting hungry. I find a little table outside next to the Accademia bridge ( I think I had drinks here the last time I came with Debbie). The waiter is a little surly like Massimo this morning but gets me taken care of. A woman comes up and I think she asks if I she can use my extra w. Sure is my replay but it turns out she was asking if I was leaving and was sitting down with her crowd at my space, which I wouldn't mind sharing but the waiter shoos her away when he realizes I have told her the wrong message. I order a draft beer, picollo size(small)...should have a medio(medium) because I am thirsty! I order the pizza Margherita, the special on the board. There is many fine sights sitting here looking out over the Grand Canal and the Accademia bridge including a young gondolier and his partner trying to drum up some business. They both get some business and are off for awhile. The service is a little slow here but it is a good place to linger. I order a aqua frizantte (water with gas) and enjoy a little more time at my spot. I use their restroom and now I am ready for my trek back.

I decide to stay on this side of the bridge and head down to the Rialto bridge. I come upon one of the fine homes, the Ca Rezzonico that has been restored and is now a museum. I have always wanted to see a grand house here so I decide to go in. It is 4:30 now and there is no one at the ticket booth. I ask the lady at the audioguide window how late they stay open and she says 6. I decide to pay the money and go in. I want to get an audioguide but she won't sell it to me because there is not enough time to use it all before the museum closes...strange, someone is sitting at the audioguide desk but not at the ticket desk. The palace rooms are upstairs (but there is an elevator Mom and even places to sit...those Italains know more than those Spainards). The rooms do remind me of the royal palace in Spain, with ballrooms, throne rooms and rooms for all those wealthy purposes and of course there is frescos on the ceilings! ( Unless if have beds in all these rooms, I really feel like you cannot appreciate the mastery of these paintings by craining your neck upwards.) It takes about a half and hour to read the little printed cards and walk around.That wasn't so long, "Why couldn't I get the audio guide?" I wonder. The security guard at the door at the exit asks me if I have seen the upper pianos(floors)...Oh no, i have not. Okay, this is little more involved, the audioguide lady was right. The second floor is full of a lot more paintings and some typical house rooms (well there are bedrooms and a pharmacy). The top floor is filled only with paintings, a collection of some famous Venetian who collected Venetian paintings and then gave it all to the city when he died(very nice). There is a lot of paintings here. There are no explainations of the paintings and I try to see how I am doing with my Italian and I translate the titles..some not too figure out even if you know no Italian (Madonna con bambino...Mother with child..you get the drift when you have seen a lot of these becuase there is lots of Christian themes of course). When did artists figure out how to paint human faces, I ponder. Their faces all look small and pinched (of course that just could be the look of the Italians at the time) and the baby and children are the worst, they all look old(like that disease that ages kids before their time or that Benjamin Button story ). I wisk through the last sets of paintings because I am started to get plagued by that old ailment coined by Debbie K " art headache overload" ( and my back is aching from all the standing, walking and carrying my bag). I stop at this gift shop on the way and they have nothing in the way of postards..silly, when you can't take pictures inside (maybe the Italians can get some tips about the postacrds from the Spainards).

I am heading home now. I get sucked into many glass shops, mesmerized by the brilliant colors. I have certain style of a red glass necklace that I want to find but I can't seem to find exactly what I want. After awhile, I buy a yellow daisy style piece of glass that intrigues but then I have to give up looking. I have now reached "art glass shop headache", a new ailment I have now coined in Venice. I get gelato on the way home. Pitasschio and cafe are my choices this time and its gluten free(Angie and Annie would like this) and this shop is environmentally friendly..the cup is made from cone material(Nice). I enjoy my treat on the way back to my hotel. I decide to pass by hotel to grab a water at a nice little store that is close by. I get a aqua frizzante and head back to the little place on the canal. I get my key from cute little Francisco and head up the stairs about 7:30. I try to use the calling card several times but it gets me to the numbers, but then only rings once! Time for a nap. I sleep until about 8:45. I work on my journal. I am thinking about getting dinner but I might just go to bed! There will be time to enjoy Italian night life once I am adjusted to the time change. I still need to have wine, pasta, a cappucino and tiramasu (one must have goals). First with the eyes and then with the stomach was my theme for today.